Posts By: Dana Cree

My latest installation for Lucky Peach’s Pastry School is about ganache, the chocolatey backbone to so many pastry techniques. Read about the not-so-simple mixture of cream and milk, and try your hand with the three recipes I’ve written, firm ganache for truffles, medium all-purpose ganache for frostings and fillings, and thin ganache for glazes and sauces. … Read more »

My latest piece over at Lucky Peach is filled with very graphic information about making meringue. I feel like it should come with a warning label, since even I started to get cross eyed after writing the word “denatured protein” for the umteenthousandth time. My friend Marc Shermerhorn took one of my baking classes… Read more »

“So, I think I’m moving.” “No way- you’ve said this before and you never do- you would never leave Chicago.” “No, really. Leigh. I’m leaving Chicago.” That is when I knew it was really happening- I said it out loud to another pastry chef AND was convincing her to take my… Read more »

I met Amanda Rockman over bowls of boiled chicken and rice, Hianese style, curled up on upholstered dining room chairs next to each other. It was an evening of the kind of laughter that contorts your face, cramps your stomach, and otherwise leaves you feeling drained in the best way possible. We might have left… Read more »

Mathew Rice, the pastry chef at The Publican restaurant in Chicago, sat down for a lovely chat about his recent experience on the first all dessert episode of the Food Network’s cooking competition, Chopped. Spoiler alert! He was crowned victorious, and with his winnings he is investing in his own exciting website, called Spilled Milk… Read more »

my latest contribution to Chefs Feed delves into what it’s like for a chef to vacation. I struggled to write this piece, as I had only vacationed as a chef. But after a few months away from the grind of restaurants I took a trip to Mexico for a friends wedding. Two days after… Read more »

We have a new writer joining the community here at The Pastry Department! Harry Flager has just returned stateside after staging in various restaurants through out Asia. If you know Harry, you know that staging is the foundation of his self structured education, a practice I HIGHLY encourage all young cooks to consider. Heck, old… Read more »

My latest installment over at Lucky Peach is just in time for your holiday baking! A guide to pie crusts includes the in’s and outs of making pie crusts, or maybe it’s the why’s and how’s? I dare say, it’s quite explanatory, I’m not sure Ive ever written the word “fat” so much. Attached are my 4… Read more »

If you read my last column for Lucky Peach, you should be ready to make proud, hollow cream puff shells. But what of their filling! Worry no more, the follow up to that piece discusses pastry cream, the classic companion for pate a choux. You may have seen pastry cream in a fruit tart, or… Read more »

I first started following the work of Ron Mendoza, long before I started following the work of Ron Mendoza. It’s confusing, I know. But about 3 years ago, I started coming across pictures of desserts made by the pastry chef of Aubergine. They resonated with me in a way few do, our desserts are kindred… Read more »